Why are web stories so effective

So far, we've often mentioned that web stories are one of the strongest ongoing marketing trends. Both through Google's innovations, and through social media platforms, web stories have garnered a specific role in marketing that no other type of content can fulfil. But, why are web stories so effective and can you make use of them? Well, let's find out.

Understanding why are web stories so effective

If you wish to deconstruct marketing trends you need to keep in mind that there is no "one reason" to why any of them are effective. Technological advancement, previous marketing trends, current audience preferences... All of these play a role in why certain marketing practices yields results. So, when you consider web stories, try to look at the big picture and the role they play in it.

Marketing oversaturation

When it comes to modern marketing you need to understand that the average user is oversaturated with content. Everywhere we turn we are bombarded with marketing content. Either an unskippable ad on YouTube. Or an obnoxious banner on a website. While this content does sometimes work, it usually either annoys people or gets ignored. From your own experience, you likely know that people are actively trying to avoid marketing content as much as possible. So, the main goal of modern marketing managers is not how to reach customers, but how to convince them to view their content.

This is one of the aspects where web stories shine. As they are short, dynamic and fairly new, it can be hard to differentiate between standard web stories and those used for marketing. So, by the time people realised that they are looking at promotional content they'd already been affected by the marketing. Those couple of seconds of viewers attention are more than enough to promote your brand, even if the viewer is not interested in what you have to say.

User attention span

In previous articles, we've already covered the issue with the user attention span in great detail. So, we won't go into much depth here. The main thing to keep in mind is that the average attention span of online users is at an all-time low. If they are merely viewing your content, you have about 8 seconds to catch their interest. Fail that, and they will go to the next thing. So, how are you supposed to say something to your viewers in those 8 seconds? Here again, is where you can use web stories to great results.

Web stories are, by design, short. Yes, you can chain together multiple web stories to say something more substantial. But, at their core, web stories are short, bite-sized content. As such, people are much more willing to check them out, even if they are not as interesting.

Secondly, web stories often contain interactive elements. Keep in mind that the relatively show attention span is only related to passive viewers. Have viewers interact with your content, and they will immediately pay attention to it. With web stories, you have a ton of different options to incorporate interactive elements and have viewers interact with your brand.

Mobile device optimization

Modern data suggests that 90% of online users use mobile devices as their primary platform. Seeing this, you'd be a fool not to optimize your marketing content for mobile. Luckily, seeing that web stories are both short and visually engaging, it is only natural for them to have a superb effect when it comes to mobile marketing.

Story content, as a whole, was designed with mobile platforms in mind. This is why we usually associate web stories with vertical images. Is it necessary for web stories to be in vertical format? No. In fact, most creators choose to create a landscape version for PC, and a vertical version for mobile. But, all things considered, if you are looking to engage in mobile marketing, you cannot help but rely on web stories.

Ease of creation

Now, all of this is well and good. But, you wouldn't be a good marketing manager if you didn't consider the difficulty and the cost of creating web stories. After all, all marketing content costs time and money to create. And while we all know that images are more engaging than pages of text, it is much cheaper to write a blog than to create infographics.

Fortunately, this idea doesn't carry over to web stories. With modern software, web stories are easier to create than ever. Through StorifyMe you can create whatever type and format of web story that you need. You can even integrate Shopify with your content if need be. Instead of suffering the limitation of social media platforms, you can own your web stories and alter them as you see fit. This ease of creation is another reason why marketing managers are quickly turning towards web stories and seeing great success through them.

SEO

The ongoing success of web stories is not something that only marketing managers noticed. People at Google pay great attention to web stories and are working hard to make them an integral part of their platform. Recent updates place great SEO value on websites that use web stories. So, if you are looking for an efficient way to climb the SEO ranks, web stories may just be the answer.

Final thoughts

Besides what we've listed, there are further reasons why are web stories are one of the emerging marketing trends. But, instead of wondering why are web stories so effective, we would suggest trying them out first hand. Visit StorifyMe and start creating beautiful web stories that you can incorporate into any part of your online presence. Websites, social media platforms or even QR codes. You can integrate web stories into all of them. So, don't waste time and make use of this trend while it is still growing.